One of the things we are asked most is to explain the story behind the name Cold Spring Ranch. While we don’t know the details since the title harks back two centuries, we thought we’d at least share what we know. Cold Spring is named after the natural freshwater spring on the hillside behind the original homestead. It not only provides the house and barn with the best tasting water we’ve ever had, but it also supplies all of the water for the cattle. It is one of the tangible reasons that a significant livestock operation is possible on the property. Gabe has spent a fair amount of time running pipes across the pastures so that every rotational grazing area is reached. It is such an ample spring that our old farmhouse faucets sometimes overflow from all the pressure.

The Ranch moniker is harder to explain, only because we don’t know the reasoning behind why the original property owners called it a ranch rather than a farm. There is some debate (at least from what we read) as to what differentiates a ranch from a farm. Some claim it is a matter of size, with ranches being significantly larger than farms. Others claim it has to do with east versus west, with ranches predominantly a western phenomenon and farms a more eastern term. Still others link it to what’s being raised on the property, with livestock reared on ranches and and vegetables and other produce grown on farms. We’re not sure what the real difference is and we’d argue that none of those distinctions seem to be quite right, but the original homestead was over 1,600 acres (a sizable spread by New England standards) and ran a variety of livestock. Perhaps the Canadian family who named it had no preconceived notion that a ranch is an anomaly around these parts. Whatever the reason, Gabe restored the Cold Spring Ranch name mainly in homage to those brave souls who first had the vision to take the mostly wooded landscape of Western Maine and turn it into what we think is one of the most beautiful spots we’ve seen – big or small, east or west.

The long full days of summer at the Ranch are filled with the near constant hum of activity – from haying to putting up fences to moving cattle to hauling water troughs to fixing and mending and updating what time and weather and nature erodes. But the winter days at the Ranch have a much calmer pace. Early mornings are for checking on the herd and breaking up any ice in the water trough. And most afternoons the cattle are fed hay. Gabe plugs in the tractor to warm it up and heads out to roll out a few bales in the snow. It has a comforting, methodical rhythm that is fitting for the short days. Each year just as we start to tire of unwrapping yet another bale in the daily feeding routine, spring arrives and it is time to let the cattle out to pasture. And we are off and running again. Until then, the days continue to inch longer and we are enjoying the more simple and still winter existence.